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War of the Yellow Cluster
The War of the Yellow Cluster, also known as the War of the Perseus Arm, the Nitomian-Urilian War, and sometimes referred to as the Disaster on the Perseus Arm, was a massive armed conflict between the forces of the Unity of the Core Worlds and the Urilian Empire. It is often cited as one of the most important interstellar conflicts in a thousand years, and is often regarded as the first key event in allowing for the unmitigated expansion of the Unity. The war found its roots in diplomatic disputes over several dozen systems on the border between Urilian and Nitomian space along the Perseus Arm, which had been contested since the two states first made contact almost a century before the conflict. Members of the Unity's government also realized the extent of corruption within the Urilian bureaucracy, and hoped to exploit that weakness in delivering a decisive blow. The newly-promoted Imperial Admiral Sayun Ta'acun, one of the nine Imperial Admirals of the Imperial Navy of the Unity, was tasked with defeating the Urilian Empire and removing its presence from the Perseus Arm. To these ends, Admiral Ta'acun employed what were, up to this point in time, the largest Nitomian fleets ever assembled in order to counter the highly-regarded and very capable Urilian Navy. Despite the presence of the strongest battlegroups of the Urilian navy in the region, warlordism, kleptocracy, and corruption prevented their maximum effectiveness in battle and during campaign. After the major Urilian defeat at Zharrus in 2200 and the death of Emperor Eridakas I at Minicus in 2201, the Unity victory was complete and the Urilians were compelled to surrender in the face of mounting social unrest. Described later by Emperor Sajuuk I as "the greatest disaster ever dealt to Urilian arms", the War of the Yellow Cluster is viewed as one of the most important military conflicts in galactic history, effectively dethroning the Urilian Empire from its place as the largest and most powerful interstellar state. The loss of the Urilian people's faith in their monarch - and the death of Eridakas at Minicus - resulted almost immediately in the Imperial Civil War, which fractured the remaining realms of the Urilian Empire for over a decade. The Urilian civil war would continue until the Empire was again united under the control of Sajuuk I in 2219. Background and prelude The decay of the Urilian Empire The Grand Imperial Vizier and a corrupt bureaucracy In the decades before the war, the massive and extensive bureaucracy of the large Urilian Empire had begun to see expansive corruption on a large scale. A tradition of hands-on, warrior emperors, whose skills in war and administration had built a powerful and large empire, had given way to a series of weak and severely flawed emperors who found themselves too busy with their wives, concubines, and personal fortunes and power than to deal with the day-to-day duties as Emperor. This happened mostly during the reign of Emperor Ghatanis II (2141 - 2165), appropriately nicknamed "the Lazy". His duties were passed along to the Grand Vizier, who had under previous emperors (the position being established by Hasdrada III in 2116) been the primary adviser of the monarch for diplomacy and administration. However, corruption eventually spread to the Grand Vizier too, and around 2150 he was essentially the de-facto ruler of the Empire in the stead of Ghatanis. Though later Emperors re-asserted their authority to an extent, the Grand Vizier (and later the Grand Marshal - a usually highly-experienced naval officer who advised the Emperor on military matters) managed to be able to pull strings and influence the Emperor and his actions. Eridakas' reign The ascension of Emperor Eridakas I - later named "the Unlucky" - to the throne in 2188 set the stage for the War of the Yellow Cluster. Eridakas was, as noted by the officials of the imperial court, his friends, and trusted colleagues, a kind and benevolent individual, humble in attitude and unassuming in nature. He did not question the actions of his subordinate naval and army officers often - due to his inexperience and general lack of skill on the subject - and instead focused his efforts on improved diplomatic relations with neighboring states and centralization of power with the Emperor. Eridakas, however, seemed to have been struck time and time again with severe bad luck: his wife died in childbirth, and the poor timing of the war for which War of the Three Systems The Urilians and Nitomians had engaged previously during the War of the Three Systems in 2080, which resulted in a saddening stalemate for both sides. Territorial disputes first began before the war, and the stalemate between the two powers did little to solve these disputes, which lingered over the next century until the Unity laid claim to all Urilian territory on the Perseus Arm. This laid the groundwork and "justification" for the initiation of the conflict. Course of the war